Taxation with out Representation
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Chapter 5-1
• Britain controls westward expansion?
– Prevent further conflict
– Kept colonists near the coast where Britain’s
important markets and investments are
– Allows British officials to control the fur trade
– Britain kept 10,000 troops in N. America to protect
their investments
• How did the colonists feel?
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• British debt left them desperate for new
revenue, or incoming money
– King George III and Parliament began plans to tax
the colonists
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• Trade Laws
– 1763 George Grenville became Britain’s Prime
Minister
– Goal = to reduce Britain’s debt and control
smuggling
– Vice Admiralty court - courts with no juries
– 1767 – Writs of Assistance – allowed customs
officers to enter any location to search for
smuggled goods
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• Sugar Act
• 1764 - Parliament passed the Sugar Act
– tax on imported molasses
– Let officers seize goods with out going to court
– James Otis – an attorney felt colonies shouldn’t
be taxed with out consent
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• Stamp Act
• 1765 – Parliament passes
– tax on printed materials
– All materials had to have a revenue stamp
– Colonists felt it was time to act
• Parliament has interfered with colonial affairs and w/ out
consent
• Patrick Henry - a rep in the House of Burgesses
persuaded the other Burgesses to take actions
Stamp act continued
• Patrick Henry accused of treason by some
– “ If this be treason, make the most of it”
• The Virginia Assembly passed a resolution, or
formal expression of opinion that Virginia “
has the only and sole exclusive right and
power to lay taxes”
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• Samuel Adams – of Boston starts The Sons of
Liberty to protest the Stamp Act
• 1765 protestors burn effigies, rag figures,
representing unpopular tax collectors
• Stamp Act Congress
– 9 colonies sent representatives to New York to meet
– Drafted a petition to King George III and Parliament
that said the colonies could only be taxed by their
own assemblies
Stamp Act Congress Continued
• In colonial cities people began boycotting
English and European goods
• Thousands signed nonimportation
agreements where they refused to import
British goods
• As the boycott spread British merchants lost
so much money that they begged Parliament
to repeal or cancel The Stamp Act
Stamp Act
• 1766 the Stamp Act is repealed
– Colonists’ trust in the King and Parliament would
still not be restored
• Declaratory Act – passed same day the Stamp
Act was repealed
– Stated that Parliament had the right to tax and
make decisions for all British colonies “ in all
cases”
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• 1767 – Townshend Acts – tax on imported
goods
– idea was to keep the colonists from getting upset
about internal taxes (tax was paid at port of entry)
– Taxed basic goods such as: glass, tea, paper, lead
– All items the colonists had to import because they
didn’t produce them
• Colonists by this time are upset by any tax issued by
Parliament
• They only wanted to be taxed by their own assemblies
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• Colonists brought back the boycott but it was
even more wide spread this time
• Daughters of Liberty
– Women show their support by encouraging
people to only buy products made in the colonies,
which they also felt would help the colonies
become more economically independent